This Is Why Binge-Watching Is No Longer in Fashion 19 December 2019

This is why binge-watching is no longer in fashion 19 December 2019

"Last year Guy Pearce admitted he was instructed not to use the term while promoting The Innocents. The fact Netflix are telling their actors not to use the term in public means that binge-watching is becoming something to be frowned upon rather than celebrated.

"Binge-watching really began when series such as HBO's The Sopranos and Six Feet Under were made available on DVD boxsets. Then, gorging on quality TV over an evening or even a weekend was seen as a sophisticated activity, carried out by people who could afford it, both in terms of money and leisure time.

Credit: CC0 Public Domain "The change happened with the rapid growth of Netflix, which needed additional content to help its expansion. Netflix has extended into a broad variety of genres. That, coupled with low A leading TV academic believes binge-watching subscription costs, meant there was an almost has now finally fallen out of fashion. inevitable backlash from the cultural commentators and trendsetters, probably fuelled by a large dollop Writing in the academic journal Participations: of snobbery. Their elite activity was now being Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, Dr. enjoyed by everyone. Mareike Jenner of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) explains that even Netflix, a platform whose "This normalisation of spending evenings watching success was built on the practice of binge- back-to-back episodes was quickly followed by watching, have started to change their approach. demonisation and moral panics as we got into the 'what if our children watch this' debates, which we Her journal article explains how the connotations saw around the controversial series 13 Reasons around binge-watching have followed a similar Why. path to channel-surfing, which burst on to the scene with the advent of TV remote controls, only "We're currently seeing streaming platforms to become associated with the kind of activity introduce different ways of providing content, such enjoyed by "couch potatoes." as 'drip feeding' episodes. Several platforms, such as Disney+, are now releasing one episode a week, Dr. Jenner, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at just like traditional TV. The companies see this as Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), explains how the the way forward. Now the more restrained you are, "cultural capital" that was first attached to binge- the more sophisticated you are." watching a quality DVD boxset has long since disappeared. More information: Control Issues: Binge- watching, channel-surfing and cultural value. Dr. Jenner, who is also the author of the book www.participations.org/Volume Netflix and the Re-Invention of Television, said: %2016/Issue%202/15.pdf

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